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Do you happen to have anything written on comparing modern FreeBSD with Linux (either kernel vs kernel or FreeBSD vs say Debian)?

by pedrocr 12y ago

cperciva 12y ago
No, but the major differences I find are: 1. The FreeBSD base system is developed intact, so there are far fewer kernel/library versioning issues. 2. FreeBSD, possibly because of its academic heritage, tends to take a more careful "let's study this problem and make sure we come up with the right solution" approach. This means that FreeBSD development is often slower, but once a feature is added it is more likely to actually work. (This is somewhat self-reinforcing: FreeBSD's stability attracts companies building servers and appliances, and when those companies contribute back they care a lot about having things continue to not break.) 3. Linux is far more popular, especially on desktops, so it tends to get drivers for new hardware faster (especially for consumer hardware). 4. FreeBSD is BSD licensed, which makes it available for a lot of companies which wouldn't want to get anywhere near Linux.
- pedrocr 12y ago
  Thanks. That fits my general idea of FreeBSD. I've mostly wondered about how they technically compare though. Facebook seems to think Linux is generally faster for example[1]. I'd love to follow this more closely but I haven't found a LWN equivalent for the BSDs. [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/608954/ https://lwn.net/Articles/608954/
  - cperciva 12y ago
    I think the best answer there is "it depends". Facebook has an open job posting which states that "Our goal over the next few years is for the Linux kernel network stack to rival or exceed that of FreeBSD" [1], so clearly there's at least one place in Facebook where Linux does not provide the best performance... [1] https://www.facebook.com/careers/department?req=a0IA000000Cz53VMAR https://www.facebook.com/careers/department?req=a0IA000000Cz...
    - jfindley 12y ago
      I wonder when that was posted. Linux networking has improved massively since the 2.6 days, and continues to get better. It's still not FreeBSD, but the difference is pretty small these days.
      - cperciva 12y ago
        Within the past couple of months, I believe. Speculation at the time was that this was fallout from Facebook devops trying to port Whatsapp to run on Facebook's systems.

Do you happen to have anything written on comparing modern FreeBSD with Linux (either kernel vs kernel or FreeBSD vs say Debian)?

by pedrocr 12y ago

Do you happen to have anything written on comparing modern FreeBSD with Linux (either kernel vs kernel or FreeBSD vs say Debian)?

cperciva 12y ago

No, but the major differences I find are: 1. The FreeBSD base system is developed intact, so there are far fewer kernel/library versioning issues. 2. FreeBSD, possibly because of its academic heritage, tends to take a more careful "let's study this problem and make sure we come up with the right solution" approach. This means that FreeBSD development is often slower, but once a feature is added it is more likely to actually work. (This is somewhat self-reinforcing: FreeBSD's stability attracts companies building servers and appliances, and when those companies contribute back they care a lot about having things continue to not break.) 3. Linux is far more popular, especially on desktops, so it tends to get drivers for new hardware faster (especially for consumer hardware). 4. FreeBSD is BSD licensed, which makes it available for a lot of companies which wouldn't want to get anywhere near Linux.

pedrocr 12y ago
Thanks. That fits my general idea of FreeBSD. I've mostly wondered about how they technically compare though. Facebook seems to think Linux is generally faster for example[1]. I'd love to follow this more closely but I haven't found a LWN equivalent for the BSDs. [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/608954/ https://lwn.net/Articles/608954/
- cperciva 12y ago
  I think the best answer there is "it depends". Facebook has an open job posting which states that "Our goal over the next few years is for the Linux kernel network stack to rival or exceed that of FreeBSD" [1], so clearly there's at least one place in Facebook where Linux does not provide the best performance... [1] https://www.facebook.com/careers/department?req=a0IA000000Cz53VMAR https://www.facebook.com/careers/department?req=a0IA000000Cz...
  - jfindley 12y ago
    I wonder when that was posted. Linux networking has improved massively since the 2.6 days, and continues to get better. It's still not FreeBSD, but the difference is pretty small these days.
    - cperciva 12y ago
      Within the past couple of months, I believe. Speculation at the time was that this was fallout from Facebook devops trying to port Whatsapp to run on Facebook's systems.